Hey guys, I've broadened the topic of this thread a little. I'm interested in seeing what pens and other copying materials you guys use?

For neat handwritten copying of scores/parts, I tend to use my Rotring Rapidograph set, which are really nice and fine for bar lines, stems etc. Have any of you used these pens, if so what do you think of them and do you use any other pens for the job?

I also tend to use a stencil for time signatures and bits of writing that need to be nice, clear and uniform.

Let's paint some pictures in our minds of your desks/working spaces when you're in the midst of composing!

"Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it." - Jasper Johns

T Earl wrote:… … For neat handwritten copying of scores/parts, I tend to use my Rotring Rapidograph set, which are really nice and fine for bar lines, stems etc. Have any of you used these pens, if so what do you think of them and do you use any other pens for the job? … …

The score I uploaded as a scanned page here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=98&p=1411#p1411 from the 1970s was probably written with the very pens, Rotring and Osmiroid, in the uploaded photograph (which I've just now taken). I used Rotring black, water based drawing ink. The Rotring nibs may still be the original ones from the 1970s, but the Osmiroid 'music nib' (red pen) will have been replaced many times between then and 2001, which is when I stopped writing ink fair copies, even for parts (replacing that with Finale). My last ink full score was almost two decades earlier.

Now all my manuscript work (composition scores, but not definitive parts) is with 3B Staedtler 'Tradition' pencil. I sharpen at least 24 before each session, sometimes more.

I discovered these as a kid in Catholic School (fountain pens and ink were required from 4th grade on). The italic point forced me to maintain the correct angle and write legibly. Years later, I saw them mentioned by Heussenstamm in the Norton Manual and was a little surprised he was recommending something that pedestrian. Until my dominant arm became disabled nine years ago, I used these for normal correspondence.